To Be A True Master part 3
by B. Juster II
Summary: The (long) story of a new pokemon trainer, his quest for a legendary evil that he released, and all his adventures along the way


  
  
TO BE A TRUE MASTER - THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Part 7 (Continued) I Hit the Jackpot!  
  
  
  
  
  
The ride was longer than a mile, maybe even three, but I didn't mind. Doduo surely didn't. He didn't understand why the rest of us were so slow. He ran back and forth between the small town and the beginning of the road eight times before we actually arrived. Getting off my bike, I walked into the very tiny town center. "Hahaha, I finally found a village smaller than Pallet," I said with a laugh.  
Walking to the local pokemart, I decided to see what I could find out.  
"Hi," I said to the middle-aged cashier.   
"Greetings, what'll it be, kid?"  
"Just some information. Are there really Eevees around here?"  
"Yep," the guy said. "Go out the town to the right and about half a mile down the road you'll find a small forest, got hundreds of Eevees, and Evolution stones, though they're hard to find. Also, through the forest is a shortcut through Mount Moon. Incidentally, we pay 100 bucks for any evolution stone you can give us, moon stones are 300."  
"Wow," I said, "I'll head up there right now!"  
"So you'll get me some stones?"  
"Sure, I'll try! Bye!"  
On my bike again, me and my pokemon started off down the road the man had told us to follow. Half a mile, as his directions had said, we began pass by a forest tamed only by the walking path through the center of the trees. I leaned my bike against a tree by the road. Assigning Pidgeotto and Doduo to guard duty on the bike, I let Pidgey fly high over the forest to look for Eevees and Evolution stones with his sharp eyes. Pikachu sat on my shoulder and Charmeleon padded after me into the forest.  
"Pika pika!" Pikachu dropped from my shoulder and scurried over to a tree, where he pulled out a blue stone. "A water stone," I said, taking it and putting it in my backpack. The three of us searched for an hour, but only found two more fire stones. No eevees were spotted during that time.  
"Jack!" I turned to see Jessie, James and Meowth running towards me joyfully.   
"Hi, guys!" I said, shaking James's hand vigorously. "So what're you doing here?"  
  
James scowled. "We turned Pikachu in to Boss, and he passed us over for promotion, so we quit, we're on our own now, except for our Pokemon."  
"Yeah, and you guys are hardly pleasant company," Meowth said with a darker scowl towards James. "I didn't even quit, Boss fired me after those two chumps left!"  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry, Meowth," I said, with a half grin. "But look on the bright side! With nothing else to do, you can now join me," I said hopefully, looking up at Jessie and James. "So... How 'bout it guys, wanna team up with me, maybe catch some Pokemon, have some fun?"  
  
James almost didn't hesitate before stepping over to me and putting his hand on my shoulder. Jessie and Meowth looked at each other, then at me and James.   
"I'm going to regret this," Jessie said, joining James.  
"Meeeowth! I'm on temporary membership," Meowth said, hopping over to James. "First sign that this group is falling and I bail!"  
  
CRRRAAAAASSSSSH!!  
The ground suddenly gave way beneath us, dropping us into a ten foot hole. Jessie and James started yelping and scrambling around frantically, kicking me several times before they untangled themselves. "OW!" I said, rolling away from a bunch of small hard things that had been bruising me. I scraped away the grass and dirt, to reveal dozens of small, shining evolution stones.  
"Char!" Pika pika!" Charmeleon and Pikachu ran into the clearing and poked their heads over the top of the hole, frantically asking if I was allright.  
Meowth popped up behind me, and his eyes widened. "This group is on the rise, I'm here to stay!" He shouted.   
  
I opened up my backpack, letting the 200 evolution stones pour out onto the counter of the pokemart. The storekeeper choked and his eyes widened. "Holy Cow, kid, where's ya get all of these?"  
"In the forest, but there weren't any Eevee's!"  
  
The man frantically jabbered into a phone, and a moment later, a stack of crisp fifty and twenty dollar bills appeared on the transferral pad behind the counter. He quickly shoved the money over the counter. "20,000 for the 200 Stones," he said, quickly scooping up the stones.  
  
"Wait," I said. I quickly grabbed two fire, two leaf, two electric, two water, and the only four moon stones from the pile. I pushed back the right amount of money, leaving me with a still large $19,200. "Thanks Mister," I yelled, rushing from the store.   
"You got the money?" James asked excitedly.  
"Indeed I did, but why did you want to stay outside?"  
"Because that stupid storekeeper doesn't trust us," Jessie said indignantly.  
Within ten minutes we had divided up the money. Jessie, James and Meowth divided up 12,000, each of them getting $4000. I received the remaining 7200, adding it to my current 1200, giving me a life savings of $8400.  
  
Jessie and James somehow spent the last two hours of daylight shopping in the small town. First they bought new Mountain Bikes, and at their suggestion I traded in my old bike and $60 for a Mountain Bike, and a small camera. Then they bought backpacks, pokeballs, the most expensive canned food, and every type of supplies they could of possibly needed.  
I calmly sold in my Pokeballs and a couple extra dollars for a new stock of 20 Great Balls. I replenished my supply of food, and me and Charmeleon set up camp. Jessie, James and Meowth stumbled into camp just after the last rays of sunlight had disappeared.  
"It's about time," I said, a bit cross. "I was planning to have a ceremony to evolve Nidorino almost an hour ago."  
"Why can't we sleep in the motel?" Jessie whined.  
"You guys can, but I prefer not to waste my money on a room we're just going to be leaving in the morning, besides, like I said, I'm evolving Nidorino into Nidoking tonight, do you want to stay and watch?"  
"Ooh! Ooh! I do, I do!" said James, hopping up and down. Jessie and Meowth sighed, and yet again, crossed over to the side of me and James.  
  
An hour later, after we had all eaten a large dinner, including the Pokemon, we all sat down across the fire from Nidorino. Jessie and James's Pokemon, Arbok, Weezing, Victreebell, Lickitung, Spearow, Doduo, and Dodrio lined up on one side of the fire. My Pokemon, Charmeleon, Pikachu, Pidgey, Pidgeotto and Doduo lined up on the other. I held out a Moon Stone and Pikachu stepped forward. Grasping the shiny stone in both paws, he layed it down in front of Nidorino.  
  
Nidorino growled and reached forward, gingerly touching the stone with his paw. As he began to glow, standing back from the fire. The glowing form began to grow. Huge spikes exploded from his back, His body grew to 6 feet tall, his back feet grew to great armored appendages. He grew a long, spiny tail from his back and his front paws shortened. The glowing steadily died down and he stopped growing.  
  
"NIDOKING!" He roared as loudly as he could. Nidoking's tail whipped around, smashing eight trees to splinters in its long whirl. The 12 Pokemon around the fire ran to hide behind their trainers, staring in absolute terror at the hulking dinosaur leering at them. Nidoking snarled, then lowered his head and roared long and loud, sounding like a T-Rex. Pidgey and Doduo crowed softly and instantly disappeared inside their pokeballs. Pikachu clung to my hat, squeaking in fear.  
  
Charmeleon cautiously leapt over the fire, standing a foot below Nidoking. He let out his loudest roar, which sounded much like a wildcat. Nidoking reared back and began his roar of supremacy. "Okay guys, you've made your point perfectly clear, now if you want to settle who's my starting Pokemon, you'll have to battle," I said, stepping between the two.  
Jessie, James and all the other Pokemon cleared away from the fire, and sat down to watch.   
  
Nidoking heavily ran across the clearing towards Charmeleon, preparing for a heavy tackle. Charmeleon stabbed his paws into the ground, and the familiar explosion of flames occured. Nidoking was knocked off course, and stumbled past Charmeleon. Before the fire Pokemon could turn, Nidoking backhanded Charmeleon, then slammed his armored foot into him. Charmeleon slid across the forest floor and lay still.   
  
Nidoking growled triumphantly and stood over Charmeleon's prone form. Charmeleon's foot unexpectedly and rapidly slid between Nidoking's feet, tripping him to the ground with a loud thud! Drawing his fist back, Charmeleon used Mega Punch, which only threw Nidoking four feet back into a tree. Charmeleon snarled and raised his head into the air.  
  
"CHAAAAAAAAAR!" Dozens of foot long spears of fire shot from Charmander's mouth, zeroing in on the recovering Nidoking. Slamming into all parts of his body, the firebolts began to take their toll, turning Nidoking's armored hide into smoking, red hot plating. My jaw dropped as I watched Charmeleon use the same attack again, sending Nidoking to the ground on his knees. "MELEON!!!!" Charmeleon threw himself into Nidoking's weakened form, dropping Nidoking into a pile of smoking animal.  
I was rapidly typing into Pokedex the new attack Charmeleon had learned. I called the attack 'Spitfire', an alternate version of flamethrower. Charmeleon stood on top of Nidoking, fists balled at his sides, head high in the air, and roared triumphantly. Unable to resist the picturesque scene of nobility, I drew out my new camera and snapped a photo of Charmeleon.  
  
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Part 8. The Evil One Awakens  
  
  
  
I awoke the next morning to the moaning and groaning of Jessie. "I've never slept on such absolutely hard ground in all the days I've graced this planet," Jessie whined.  
"I found it invigorating," James said, rolling up his sleeping bag. "I hardly ever sleep outdoors, and it's such a beautiful morning, it'd be a shame to wake up indoors today."  
  
"Since when did you grow to love the outdoors so much?" Jessie asked, tying her bag up.  
"Since I realized that Jack isn't going to let us sleep in a nice, warm comfortable bed for the duration of this adventure, isn't that right Mr Soniq?" James said with a laugh.  
  
"Yup," I said, grinning and making way for Charmeleon to light the fire. It took only 30 minutes to cook breakfast, eat, then clean up camp and get on our way, mainly because on my incessant urging, and loudly voiced thoughts that there were rare Eevees in the forest.   
  
Panting but relentless, me and Charmeleon raced through the forest after our prey. Two eevees squealed and ran, terrified into the small bushes surrounding the forest. Pikachu, sitting in my backpack, uttered Pikas and pointed excitedly at the eevees we were catching up with. Charmeleon howled triumphantly and exploded through the bushes, and his howl was cut short bu his strangled gurgling. A blast of water shot through the bushes, and I knew Charmeleon was in trouble. Leaping into the dirt road, a terrible scene met me.  
  
Charmeleon lay on the ground, twitching and soaked, his tail flame low. The two Eevees were beating a hasty retreat down the dirt road. I barely caught sight of a long, blue scaled tail slipping back into the bushes opposite me. "Go get those eevees, Pikachu," I yelled, dropping to a knee beside Charmeleon.  
"Pika pika!" Pikachu jumped from my backpack and scampered down the road, cheeks sparking in his excitement.   
"Charmeleon," I said, worried. "Are you okay?"  
"Meel, on, char chaaarr...." he moaned, which translated into 'I jumped into the road, and something blue shot me with a water attack, then disappeared.'  
"Here, you rest," I said, and pulled out his pokeball.  
After securing Charmeleon, I ran up the road to find Pikachu. I found him five minutes later, in the middle of the road, angrily about to use his finishing move on an obviously paralyzed Eevee. "Pikachu, stand down," I ordered.  
Pikachu calmed down and ran over to me, jumping into my backpack. "Good work Pikachu, sorry I yelled at you," I said thankfully. Reaching back into my backpack for a pokeball, I encountered Pikachu's small paw, holding out a pokeball to me.  
I laughed and accepted it. "You're just going to live back there, aren't you? Well, then you'll have to keep it organized and clean!"  
Turning my hat around like I'd seen Ash Ketchum do in Newsflashes at Pallet Town, I hurled the pokeball at the rarest pokemon I'd yet found, and the one with the most possibilities. With a loud ZIP! Eevee, scared and paralyzed, was sucked into the pokeball. So wiped out was he by his long run and encounter with Pikachu, that he hardly offered any resistance. The Pokeball light faded, signalling the obvious.  
"YES! I CAUGHT EEVEE!" I yelled, throwing my hat into the air.  
I pressed the release button and out came Eevee, looking frightened. I took out three evolution stones, and tried to figure out which one to use. I decided to use all of them. I wasn't superstitious, but I felt a little worried when, as I decided to use all three stones, dark clouds appeared over the horizon, flashing with lightning. Eevee squealed with fright as he looked up at the clouds, then me.   
I knelt beside the quivering animal and petted it gently. "It's okay, little guy, this won't hurt, and you'll be able to defend yourself a little better against Pikachu, that okay?"  
Eevee looked a little scared, but he sat down and took in a deep breath. I slowly moved my hand out, and the three stones touched his fur... "JACK!" Jessie and James burst from the forest, waving two pokeballs in the air ecstatically.  
I sighed and turned around. "What'd ya get?" I asked tolerantly.  
"Two eevees ," James said joyfully, tossing his pokeball into the air and catching it. "You're evolving your eevee right now?" Jessie asked. "Better do it in the clearing over there past those bushes, the road isn't a very nice place!"  
I shrugged and hopped into the bushes, eevee quietly following me, Jessie and James crashing after me. I drew out three more stones and knelt in the large clearing, which was about thirty feet wide. "Fire," James said.  
"Electric," Jessie said.  
I tossed them their stones, and prepared to touch eevee with mine. I heard James murmur "this looks awfully familiar, where did I see this-" James gasped, and made a flying leap towards me. Things seemd to go in slow motion then. "JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK," James howled as he flew through the air. Jessie's eyes widened and she struggled up. Pikachu leapt from my backpack and into his pokeball as if sensing danger. My three stones touched eevee's back, just before James plowed into me.  
Jessie, Pikachu, James (who was laying on me) and I watched in astonishment. The dark clouds which had appeared over the horizon appeared above us, thundering and crashing furiously. Eevee shrieked, and stood on his back paws, face up to the heavens. Red, blue and golden lights flashed and crackled, and a wailing worse than anything I had ever heard filled the air. Dark blue beams of light were sucked into eevee's body, followed by red, then gold. Last of all, a ray of black light dropped from the cloudy sky and surrounded eevee, lighting the small pokemon up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the three evolution stones rise into the air, then fly off into the sky, small lights trailing after them until they disappeared in the heavy black clouds.  
Then the worst part came. Eevee's fur exploded off his body and horrific changes began. Scales sprang from the air and clapped themselves over his body. A wave of fire encircled eevee, and he was wrapped in flames. A lightning bolt shot from the sky, striking him and hiding him from view for ten seconds.   
The beam of black light departed, fading away into the black clouds above us. A steady pittering of small rain drops began, soaking Jessie, James and I in a few seconds. Through the rain, a dark thing made its presence known with a low, ominous snarl. A clap of lightning struck twenty feet away from the clearing, lighting up the scene for a precious few seconds.   
What I saw horrified me, shaking me to my very core. A 6 foot animal stood on all fours, feet spread apart defiantly. Its midsection was swathed in flames, its head and shoulders terrifying with their sharp, golden electric spines. Last of all, its dark blue tail, covered in scales and small spikes, lashed the ground, digging up grass wherever it touched.  
The animal lowered its head, looked up at the sky, and uttered a roar so fierce it would shake the soul of the bravest warrior. Like a thousand dying men's voices, two thousand battle cries, three thousand cries of agony, and four thousand of absolute fury. Jessie promptly fainted away, James looked petrfified.  
I stood up, standing bravely up to the horrific creature. "WHO ARE YOU?" I yelled over the crashing of thunder.  
The beast looked down at me, and a look that could only of been pure contempt crossed his face. "I be called Ultrareon, slayer of all in my path," the beast said in a deep, well defined voice.  
My eyes widened and I reached down, slinging Jessie over my shoulder and running to the edge of the clearing. "THUD, THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!"  
I whirled, and to my utter horror, Ultrareon was charging me. Loping with long, hard strides, he closed in on me. His front leg muscles rippled with every footfall, and he left his footprints deeply imbedded in the ground. James staggered up and jumped in front of the beast, which bore down on him, dwarfing the small teenager.   
"HALT!" James said in a commanding voice. Unfortunately, the poor boy was still stunned and didn't see how dangerous his foe was. Ultrareon circled James with a ferocious hiss, his tail lashing out at James, who deftly dodged it. James made a running jump, landing on ultrareon's head. James yelped in pain as Ultrareon's head lit up with electricity, sending its human enemy crashing to the ground. Placing one hand on James's head, it curled its large talons around his skull. James glowed, then sank to the ground. The beast appeared to be sucking James's energy away from him.  
Another surprise was yet to come, as Ultrareon grew another three feet from James's energy. Jessie found the strength to opene her eyes and whimper. "James..." she said quietly. I dropped Jessie and picked up a large stick. Hurling it straight and true, I hit Ultrareon right on the side of his head.  
He shrieked, an ear piercing sound worse then Onix's screech, and hurled James's limp body into the forest. I curled my hands into fists and stood firmly my ground. Ultrareon shot high into the air, then crashed to the ground behind me. I couldn't turn in time, and he swung with his mighty paw, sending me into a tree. Everything went blurry for a moment, the rain, Jessie struggling up across the clearing, Ultrareon's hulking form bearing down on me.  
I coughed and weakly activated one of the pokeballs on my belt, then the next, and the other four. I tried to get up myself, but found myself momentarily paralyzed.  
"DGEOTTO!"  
"DO!"  
"DGEY!"  
"PIKA!"  
"CHAR!"  
"NIDOKING!"  
"Attack him," I said in a soft, weak voice.  
My two bird pokemon flapped high into the air, but were unlucky in this fight. Ultrareon swung his paw, and in the ensuing draft, Pidgey and Pidgeotto were thrown across the clearing, laying still on the ground. Pikachu brought down his trademark thundershock upon Ultrareon, lighting up the enemy's skeletal structure for a moment. The electricity cleared, and Ultrareon stood, smirking.  
With a flick of his eight inch talon, Ultrareon spun Pikachu off into the bushes. Doduo crowed and ran from battle, but Nidoking and Charmeleon roared and faced down their opponent. Running forward, Charmeleon's paw lit up with a powerful Mega Punch. In lightning fast jabs and punches, Charmeleon came down on Ultrareon. The powerful enemy blocked each of Charmeleon's punches, and slashed at him with a large claw.   
Charmeleon shook his head and cradled it in his hands, moaning and staggering blindly across the clearing. Nidoking glared at Ultrareon, completely unafraid, and tackled him. Nidoking's tackle failed, and he bounced harmlessly off of Ultrareon's armored hide.   
"MEGA Punch!" Ultrareon's fist glowed, and smashed into Nidoking's lower stomach, throwing the pokemon back with a howl of pain. "FIRE BLASSSSSSST!" Ultrareon roared.  
Nidoking made a brief spin as the first wave of fire struck him, then he disappeared from my sight, unrestrained volleys of fire enveloping him completely. The fire dissipated, and Nidoking lay in a pathetic ball on the ground, smoking and whimpering.   
Ultrareon let out a low chuckle and bore down on me, his claws closing around my head. I felt my energy leaving my body, but before I blacked out, I saw a massive red form flying through the air, breathing flames down into the clearing.....  
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Part 9. My Journey Takes a Turn for the Worse  
  
  
  
  
  
"Is he awake?"  
"I don't know, stop shoving me!"  
Just opening my eyelids was a tremendous chore as I came to, some time later. Jessie was leaning over me, taking a damp rag from my forehead. James appeared over her shoulder, grinning happily in spite of his black eye. I weakly looked around. I was in the lobby of a pokecenter, on a couch, with my backpack resting beneath me, that much I could tell.  
"Jack! I thought you would never get up, you slept like the dead," James said cheerfully.  
"I feel like the dead, dangit," I said, rolling over, and falling over onto my side weakly.   
"You're lucky Charizard made that suicide run on Ultrareon, or you wouldn't be here now," Jessie said, helping me up.   
"Char-Charizard?" I mumbled, trying to gain a steady footing in the strangely swerving and twirling pokecenter lobby.   
"Yeah," Meowth said, looking up at me. "Your Charmeleon evolved into Charizard, then coated himself in flames and made a divebomb into Ultrareon, nearly knocked that guy cold! Ultrareon sprouted wings and disappeared."  
"Unfortunately, Charizard hurt himself badly, he's in the emergency room now," Jessie said.  
I groaned and stood up, holding my head as it felt like the insides were sloshing about freely. "Kindly point me in the direction of the ER," I said.  
After five minutes of staggering around, even with James's help, I finally got to the room where Charizard lay.  
Charizard was unusually large for his evolution, filling up hald the medical ward with hid 15 foot frame, his wings folded neatly under him. The poor fire pokemon was covered in small bruises, scratches and burns, the largest of which were bandaged. Every few second, Charizard would shiver and growl in agony.   
I softly opened the door and walked over to the badly hurt pokemon, tears in my eyes. I ran my hand over one of his blackened claws, then stepped up beside Charizard's head.  
"Hi, Charmander," I said quietly, thin gave a short laugh as his left eye rolled over to look at me. "Guess you're not a little Charmander anymore, huh?"  
"So, when do you think you'll be outta here?" I asked calmly, fighting back tears as my friend shuddered in pain again.  
"Chaaar.... Ch, zard, char char charizard....." (I will not be leaving this room with a beating heart... I'm just so sorry I could not rid the world of Ultrareon.... I really did try....)  
I choked back a sob and clutched his claw tightly. "Of course you'll get outta this smelly hospital, and we'll get Ultrareon, we have to stop him... from destroying other... villages! And I can't do that without you!"  
Charizard chuckled and pointed his claw at the door. "Charizard chaaa, rizard char" (There's puny pathetic one, get him to help you)  
I looked over at the door, and there was Pikachu, standing looking disappointed, his ears drooping, holding an apple in both paws. "Pika pika?"  
Pikachu scampered across the floor, hopped up on my shoulder, then dropped down to sit beside Charizard. The little yellow rodent held out his apple, offering it to the pokemon fifteen times his size.   
"I'm afraid it's going to take a little more than an apple this time, Pikachu," I said quietly.  
Charizard suddenly tightened up, and gasped out his name in pain. "Charizard, stay here," I said, fighting back tears as my best friend bgean to go into his death throes. The flame on his tail flared up, then quickly began to decrease in size and intensity.  
"Chaaar... charizard char char izar chariz! Char... char.. char.. chaaar..." (Where I go, only my kind can find me, but I shall always remember you, master, friend, companion..... Jaaaack....)  
"NOOO!" I yelled, hugging Charizard's arm, trying to hold him back. I heard a sizzling, and looked up. Charizard's tail flame sparked, then died, its powerful Charizard body and mind following it. I felt Charizard's pulse slow, then halt through his wrist. I gave in to the utter despair and sadness, crying hard, burying my face in Charizard's cooling arm.  
Images which only increased my sadness poured through my mind. My first glimpse of Charmander when he popped out of his pokeball in Oak's lab.... The time he let me shake his tail flame.... His thundershock attack in Viridian Forest.... The triumphant victory at Pewter, his smashing into the sign advertising Eevee city, where he met his death.... His triumph over Nidoking....  
"Pikachu?"   
I looked up, shaking my head at the tiny electric mouse. "No, Pikachu, he can't take your apple...."  
Pikachu touched Charizard's side sadly, then carefully pushed his apple into Charizard's open palm.  
  
  
  
To Be Continued......  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note: PLEASE! Somebody tell me about my story, tell me what you think, what could be corrected, suggestions for what should happen next! Your feedback is what makes the world of a writer go around! I need your help! Send any comments to brenndon_juster@hotmail.com  
FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD, I'LL DEDICATE THE NEXT PART TO WHOEVER CAN GIVE ME A TWO-THREE PARAGRAPH SUMMARY OF THE THREE PARTS OF THIS STORY FIRST! 


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